Slips of the Tongue
by Iridiscente
Summary: Gajeel is scared at the prospect of asking Levy out - not that he'll admit to it. The unusual way in which he's asking her probably isn't helping matters. Rated T mainly because of Gajeel. Oneshot. Gajevy.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.**

 **Hey, all! This story does have some Spanish lines in it, but don't worry if you don't understand them. You can probably figure out their meaning through the context, and I have all the translations down at the bottom. Read, review, and enjoy!**

* * *

It couldn't be healthy for his heart to be racing this fast. Gajeel raised a hand as if to push open the library doors before dropping his arm as he'd done at least five times by now. Through the small window, he could see into the library with its tall wooden shelves filled to the brim with books of all sizes and colors. Scattered around the room were comfortable armchairs, and in the back, he knew, there were tables where students could study.

The thought of the tables, unbelievably enough, brought his heart rate up another notch. Mentally berating himself for his fear, he cast a furtive glance over his shoulder. The hallways, as they often were a good half hour after classes ended, were completely empty. Of course, that meant nothing. Gajeel just knew that idiot Salamander and the stripper were hiding somewhere with their girlfriends, and maybe the Titania too, to see if he would chicken out. And he'd be damned if he let those assholes hold this over his head.

Gritting his teeth, he strode into the library. As usual, he attracted looks as he made his way to the study tables in the back. With his long black hair, multiple face piercings, and imposing stature, he was impossible to ignore. On the flip side, Gajeel ignored just about everyone. But the small girl with short blue hair at the back of the library was someone he couldn't disregard, and it wasn't just because she was tutoring him in Spanish.

"Hey. I was beginning to wonder where you were," Levy said when she saw him. Her red glasses were perched on her nose. The sight of her did funny things to his stomach.

"Sorry, Shrimp. Got held up."

"Alright, then. Let's get started. You have a quiz this week, right?" Levy asked, taking the Spanish textbook from the stack next to her. Not that she needed his answer. At this point, she knew his schedule better than he did. Gajeel gave a noncommittal grunting sound as Levy started going over the preterite form of the verbs. It was all stuff they'd reviewed before, but with Gajeel, review never hurt. It was all just so damn confusing.

"Remember, accents are very important. If you forget the accent, you change the meaning of the verb. 'Canto' without an accent means 'I sing.' 'Cantó' with emphasis on the 'o' means 'He sang.' Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard this shit before."

"And yet you always seem to just put accents wherever you want."

Gajeel glared at her as she moved onto irregular preterite and then the imperfect tense. He swore, all the different tenses were just the Spanish language trying to fuck with him. He'd never heard of half of those tenses before Spanish class. It had never come up in English.

Finally, after about an hour and a half of torture, Levy wrapped up their studying. Gajeel's heart suddenly jumped up into his throat and started pounding like crazy.

"All right. Well, good luck on your test. If you study hard, I'm sure you'll get at least an A." Levy made to move past Gajeel.

"Oi, wait, Shrimp!" he suddenly said. Levy turned back around, staring questioningly at him. He swallowed. Now was not the time to lose his nerve. "I've been meaning to ask you something."

Levy continued staring at him, giving him silent assent. Gajeel opened his mouth to find his throat was ridiculously dry. This was such a stupid idea. But Bunny Girl and Juvia had seemed to think Levy would really like it if he asked her out in Spanish; it was something about it showing that Gajeel had been paying attention during the tutoring sessions, and it played to her love of languages. They were the ones who were her friends, so he'd decided to trust them.

Those chocolate brown eyes of hers bored into him, and the way she tilted her head caused her blue tresses to fall away from her slim neck on one side.

 _Snap out of it, Gajeel_ , he ordered himself. _You shouldn't be sounding like a lovestruck idiot._ A bit late for that, he realized. He was already falling headfirst into love. God damn it, did he really just think that? Better get this over with and go blast some rock music before he _really_ sounded like a lovesick moron.

"¿Quieres ir al cine con mi?" Gajeel blurted, his words tripping over themselves on their way out. Levy's eyes widened for a second in shock before returning to their normal size. The corners of her mouth tugged up a bit.

"¿Por qué?" she replied. She had a flawless accent in whatever language she was speaking. Her words were always light and soothing. However, her question had him sweating bullets. Why did he want her to go with him to the movies? Well, duh, because he _liked_ her. Unfortunately, he didn't exactly know how to say that in Spanish. Well, he had an idea, but he didn't know if it was right.

"¿Porque amó?" He hadn't intended for that to come out as a question. With that, Levy burst into a full smile and started laughing. It was a cute laugh, and her hair bounced up and down as she doubled over in hysterics.

"What?" he practically growled, face red. "What's so damn funny?"

Levy managed to get herself under some semblance of control. Her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink.

"Oh, nothing," she replied, waving his question off. "Do you know what you just said?"

"Yeah!" Gajeel scratched the back of his head. "...I think."

"Well, let me inform you," Levy said, smirking. "First, you asked me if I wanted to go to the movie theater with you. Oh, and it should be 'conmigo' not 'con mi,' before I forget." Gajeel grumbled something about grammar Nazis. "Then, I asked you why you wanted me to go with you. And then…" Levy trailed off, obviously enjoying the suspense.

"Well? What'd I say?" Gajeel demanded.

"You said, 'Because he loved'."

Gajeel blinked a few times, then stared openmouthed at Levy. That was totally _not_ what he'd intended.

"Ehh?!"

Levy started laughing again, but now he understood what she thought was so funny.

"I'm guessing you meant 'amo' with the emphasis on the 'a'. But then that means you just confessed your love to me."

"What?!"

Another jaw-dropping moment for him, and another bout of laughter for her.

"I meant to say 'I like you'! There's a huge difference between that and 'I love you'! Oi, stop laughing! It is not funny!"

"I beg to differ. This is the epitome of funniness."

And so it went for a while, Levy laughing her ass off, Gajeel blushing and trying to stop her, and the librarian eventually getting involved and having to tell them both off. Eventually, they both settled down.

"Yes," Levy said. Gajeel gave her a weird look.

"...Yes, what?"

"I'm answering your question," Levy replied, rolling her eyes. It took him about a moment longer to comprehend what she was saying. Then, when it finally hit him, he blushed a little deeper.

"Aww, you're actually blushing! That's so cute!" Levy squealed in delight. Gajeel turned away and tried to hide his face in his collar.

"Tomorrow. After school. Be in the parking lot," Gajeel ordered, twisting back around and pointing at Levy. She just smiled and nodded. With that, Gajeel got up and left, his face still redder than normal.

 _Damn girl_ , he thought. _It wasn't that funny!_ But, he realized as he walked, making a fool of himself hadn't been that bad; after all, her laugh was more than enough to make up for it.

* * *

 **Hello, wonderful readers!**

 **Thank you so much for reading this random plot bunny of mine. It means a lot to me. As always, don't forget to review! Reviews are awesome!**

 **Here's the translation for all the Spanish that appeared in this story:**

 **Canto. - I sing.**

 **Cantó. - He sang.**

 **¿Quieres ir al cine conmigo? - Do you want to go to the movie theater with me? (Note: Gajeel said 'con mi' in the story, but, if we're being grammatically correct, it's 'conmigo'.)**

 **¿Por qué? - Why?**

 **¿Porque amó? - Because he loved?**

 **Amo - I love.**

 **Once again, thank you for reading!**

 **Iridiscente**


End file.
